Closure
by RositaLG
Summary: One night can change your life. Trory Futurefic.
1. Sunday Morning Coming Down

When Rory woke up Sunday morning, it was with extreme reluctance. Her eyes didn't want to open and her whole body hurt. Why did her body hurt? She finally opened her eyes, thinking that maybe she fell while she was drinking last night. When she looked down, she was surprised to find that she was naked…and she wasn't in her own bed. She wasn't even in her own apartment.

Bolting upright, she immediately remembered why she was in pain. She grabbed her head and gradually turned to her right. Sleeping quietly next to her was Tristan DuGray. The mortifying memories from the night before started pouring in faster than her mind could process them. The club, the drinks, meeting Tristan again for the first time. Celebrating her 24th birthday, him mentioning something about his place. The kiss. The passionate although drunken make-out session. And then… the sex. Not just any sex, oh no. The mind-blowing, best orgasm she's ever had, circus sex…Twice.

'Twice? Oh God.' Her heart began to pound as strongly as her head. 'Of course, what else would you expect from someone who has had as much practice as Tristan?' She thought bitterly as she jumped out of bed, frantically but quietly searching for her clothes. She was just about dressed when she realized she didn't have her shirt. Tristan moved over, and she froze looking at him. It was under him.

'Fuck!' She couldn't very well take a cab home without a shirt. As she sat debating whether or not to steal one of his, Tristan moved again, this time waking up. 'No, no, no, no! Bad, very bad!' He too seemed to be disoriented as he opened his eyes, his head still on the pillow. As his vision slowly came into focus, he realized he was staring at a half-dressed Rory Gilmore.

"Hi." He said, not knowing what else to say. He languorously remembered why he was staring horizontally at a half-dressed Rory Gilmore. He decided he should probably sit up. Did the room always spin like this?

"Hi." She said, grabbing her shirt from under him. "I was just…"

"Leaving?" She nodded. "Why?"

"Because this has never happened to me before and I'm both hung over and embarrassed and I have no idea how to deal with this." She answered truthfully, figuring there was no point in lying at this stage of the relationship. She started walking towards the door.

"Wait." She turned around slowly, almost as if she had been caught doing something bad. He needed a moment to stall while he thought about what to do next. "Do you at least want to stay for breakfast or coffee or something?" Rory looked like that was the last thing on earth she wanted to do. "Please?" Then, Tristan said something he never thought he would ever say. "I feel like we should talk about this." This sentence was enough to catch Rory's curiosity. Tristan breathed a sigh of relief as she shrugged.

"Why not."

OOOOO

Rory sipped her coffee and stared out the window at the skyscrapers towering over Manhattan. Tristan sat down at the table and did the same.

"So." He started.

"Yeah." She followed.

"How much do you remember about last night?" He asked, hoping she remembered something. He couldn't handle finally sleeping with her after all these years and having her be completely wasted. Oh God! Rory thought, he doesn't remember!

"Everything. Although it's a blurry everything." She said, completely unaware that she was blushing.

"Me too. Are you completely regretting your decisions?" He asked.

"The alcohol, yes. You, I think that depends on this conversation." She was right. He nodded, surprised at her answer. "What about you?"

"If I remember correctly, I'm pretty sure that I enjoyed last night." His answer caused her to drop her eyes, smile and blush. He took this as a good sign.

"Maybe, but was it the alcohol talking?" She honestly wanted to know. She didn't even know if she wanted to see Tristan again, but a girl doesn't want to hear that she was just some girl in a bar.

"I definitely enjoyed your company. I think the alcohol made everything a little…" He searched for the words.

"Lascivious?" She offered. He laughed and nodded.

"I should have known you would have a word to describe it."

"And I'm hung-over to boot." She added proudly, taking another sip of her coffee. Her mind was finally clearing. He smiled.

"I want to see you again, maybe this time without the alcohol?" Rory tossed this idea around in her head. Then she looked him in the eyes and suddenly felt light-headed. 'Must be a little more hung-over than I thought.' She convinced herself.

"Yeah, that would be good. Did we exchange numbers last night?" She asked, pulling out her Sidekick.

"I don't think we got that far." He said, grabbing his phone as well. They swapped information and left the conversation at that. After she had finished her coffee, she got up to leave.

"Thanks for the coffee." She said.

"Thank you for not leaving." He smiled. There was an awkward moment where neither one of them knew what to do. Tristan had the urge to kiss her goodbye, which was strange, considering he had only known her 12 hours. Rory bumbling, sort of half-hugged him.

"Bye." She said, clearly embarrassed and uncomfortable.

"Good-bye." He said, inwardly laughing at the situation.

After Rory had left, Tristan cleaned up the path they had made to his bedroom. He shook his head as he remembered the way she had pushed him against the wall and vice versa, as if they were in a drunken Pong game, scattering clothes all the way down the hall. As he threw his shirt into the hamper, he caught himself in the mirror. He had scratches on his neck and back from Rory's fingernails. The memories of the night before flashed in his head.

"_Tristan!" Rory moaned from underneath him on the couch. He had pushed her skirt up around her hips and was grinding into her, despite the fact that he was still wearing his pants and she had on obviously damp panties. He let up so that she could get off the couch but she grabbed him again. She wrapped her legs around his waist, and he carried her partway to the bedroom. That is until she started sucking on his bottom lip and tongue, causing him to lose focus. With a guttural moan, he fell back against the wall, allowing her to continue. As she started down his neck, he remembered why they were in his hallway. He continued on towards the bed, placing her in the center. He ripped off his pants as she finished getting undressed. With both of them finally freed of the restrictions, hands began roaming. _

"_God Rory!" He cried as his fingers slid easily through her folds and into her wet center. Rory lost the ability to speak as he began to work his magic. He pulled out far too quickly for Rory's liking but soon, he replaced his fingers with his thick and throbbing cock. With a gasp from each of them at the new and heightened sensation, Tristan began moving his hips. Rory met him thrust for thrust as her nails dug into Tristan's flesh. They were both sitting on the bed, her legs wrapped around his waist, holding onto each other, pulling each other closer with each motion. Deeper, faster, both needing this feeling to last forever, but wanting it to grow stronger._

Tristan shook his head as the memories dissipated. He was getting hard just thinking about it. He hopped in the shower, thankful that today was a Sunday and he didn't have to hurry to work. Unfortunately, Tristan had forgotten about the other escapade as well.

After coming back from the bathroom, he found Rory lying on her stomach on his bed. Her perfect, milky ass greeting him. She got on her knees to move but the sight of her on all fours only made things worse. He grabbed her hips from behind her, stopping her from moving another inch. She turned her head and grinned, knowing full well what was about to transpire. His hand reached around and rubbed her clit, causing her to lower herself to steady against him. The friction was all he needed as he positioned her and promptly entered her. Rory moaned at the action and settled her face into a pillow to keep from screaming. She was so tight Tristan would have sworn that she was still a virgin, all prior activities together aside. Every motion of his hips caused her to yell until she came hard into the pillow. Tristan wasn't close to finishing so he kept going, hoping that the stimulation would last. To his amazement, it wasn't long before she was climbing again, this time in sync with his own motions. Tristan had never felt this intensity during sex before, he thought his head was going to explode as they came together, screaming.

Tristan had come twice last night and here he was again, in the shower, jerking off to the simple memory of Rory in his bed. Of course, mind-blowing, eye-crossing sex wasn't the only thing that he loved about her. She was just as smart and adorable as he remembered from High school. She still blushed, even after everything they had done together. He knew he was crazy about her. And if he hadn't woken up in time, she could have been gone forever. She mentioned that she had never had a one-night stand before, would she have even left her number? But she didn't leave, he thought with a smile, and he got her number. He won.

OOOOO

How the hell was she going to explain this one?

She sneaked back into her apartment and slowly put her keys down in the bowl next to the door.

"Morning!" A very chipper Jess said as he sat on the kitchen counter eating his cereal. She slowly turned around.

"Hi." She said, blushing furiously.

"So, details? Or were you too drunk to remember?" He loved seeing this side of Rory. In the years they had known each other, he had never known her to be so…loose and freewheeling. The tables had turned and she was going to hear about it for the rest of her life.

"I remember…most of it." She mumbled as she took the cereal bowl from his hands. "Don't look at me like that. It's not like he was some random guy. At least I knew him."

"You haven't seen him in like…ten years!" He said. She didn't respond. "Well, all I can say is Happy Birthday to you." He said as he hopped off the counter and walked out of the kitchen.

Rory had been living with Jess since she graduated from Yale a few years ago. She had moved to the city to work at and he joined her a few months later. As much as he loved Philadelphia, New York would always be his home, so he and his bookstore parted ways so he could write full-time. His last book had done fairly well considering he printed his own copies. It had been picked up by a publisher not long after he came to visit, or rather save, Rory from her life with Logan and her Grandparents. She always thought it was amusing that he credited her for changing his life while she held him in the same regard. They had both headed down bad paths but they had saved each other, and that relationship was unlike any other on the planet. Their friendship ran deep and Rory was thankful that it was able to continue. Speaking of continue, what was she going to do about Tristan? She wanted to see him again, and she definitely wanted last night to continue, but there was something very…intense about their relationship. She walked towards the shower, maybe the hot water would ease the pain in her muscles. She was bent last night in ways she didn't know she could bend and her body was yelling at her.

OOOOO

The October morning was brisk as Tristan went for a run through Central Park. The shower had done nothing to clear his head and he needed some time to think. He had found himself staring at Rory's number in his phone earlier, something he hadn't done…well, ever. He had never worried about the three day rule or how soon was too soon after a date to ask for another. These things had always just come to him. Of course, he hadn't ever wanted a one-night stand to stay for breakfast either. He passed a woman walking her dog. A dog would be a fun thing to get, he thought. 'I wonder if Rory likes pets.' He needed to get a grip. He didn't even know her as an adult. As far as he was concerned, she was just some girl that he had met yesterday. But she wasn't, they had a history. One that involved him tripping over himself to try and get this girl; but by being sent away to Military School, he had failed miserably. 'Maybe all this is just closure,' he pondered. 'Maybe I just need to finally date her and get her out of my system.' He liked this idea. It meant that he wasn't as crazy as he thought he was. He would take her out, treat her right, maybe get laid again and get her out of his system. DuGray, you are a genius, he smiled to himself as he passed another runner.


	2. Good Morning Beautiful

Disclaimer: I don't own squat.

Rory was drying her hair with a towel when Jess barged into the bathroom.

"Um, Hello!" She said, surprised.

"I need the bathroom, you've been in here forever!"

"You're just lucky I was wearing a towel. And I've got my first date with Tristan tonight."

"You mean besides the sex?"

"Yes, besides the…What did you need?" She asked, exasperated at his sarcastic tone.

"Just hurry up will you?" Rory nodded and grabbed her robe. After 12 outfits, she finally committed to one. She was just finishing her last earring when the doorbell rang. She heard Jess get the door.

"Hi, I'm looking for Rory Gilmore?" Tristan looked confused.

"You've found her. Come on in." Jess said, smiling on the inside. He always loved to see the reactions of her dates when they found out she was living with another guy. He pointed to the couch and went to get Rory.

"He's here, I heard the door." She said, before he even got a chance to say anything.

"Yeah. You look good." He said, taking a step back and admiring her.

"Thank you." She smiled triumphantly as she walked out of the bedroom and found Tristan, sitting on the couch. "Hey."

"Hi, you ready?" She nodded as she grabbed her purse.

"I won't wait up." Jess said as they left.

OOOOO

"So Mary," He said as they walked down the street. "Care to explain who that was?" She smiled.

"That is Jess."

"Jess. Brother?" He asked, knowing that he wasn't.

"No, sadly I'm an only child. Jess is my best friend. I've known him since high school."

"Ex-boyfriend?" Rory nodded and blushed. "Yeah, but we don't like to go there."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, he and I ended really badly. It's a long story, but we saw each other once and awhile and slowly got over it. And soon we decided that we were better off as friends. We've kind of pulled each other out of bad situations and really been there for each other in the worst case scenarios." Tristan nodded.

"That's cool that you have that. Not many couples can do that."

"Well, when I graduated from college, his uncle started dating my mom. So, technically, he's my step-cousin now." Tristan looked sideways at her.

"Are you serious?" He burst out laughing.

"Yeah, it was like 5 years after we dated so I'm pretty sure that it was time-barred." He looked impressed.

"Look at you! Throwing out the legal jargon."

"Don't be too impressed. I just had to write an article on a case in Florida." She explained. He nodded.

"So you're a writer?"

"Yeah, I write for some online magazines, every now and again the AP picks one of them up and it's in a paper. My mother googles my name quite frequently and lets me know what I'm in." She laughed. Tristan loved listening to her laugh. She had one of the best laughs he'd ever heard. It wasn't obnoxious or too long, it was just…sweet.

"That's really cool."

"What do you do?" She asked, realizing how stupid that sounded considering she had slept with him already.

"I'm actually a personal trainer." He said.

"Seriously?" Rory was shocked. Well that explains a lot, she thought.

"Yeah, my parents hate it, but I started working out in military school and found that it was a "constructive way of dealing with my issues"." He said, putting on his therapist voice. "Pretty soon, I was addicted."

"Well that's positive." She laughed.

"I'm serious. I have to run every day. I have to get my workout in, otherwise I go nuts."

"Are you one of those health nuts when it comes to eating too? Are you taking me to a Vegan place?" She hoped to God he wasn't.

"No," She let out the breath she was unconsciously holding.

"Oh thank God." He laughed as she collapsed on his arm, sending electricity shooting over his skin. "Because the things I eat would make anyone cringe, let alone a healthy person."

"You certainly don't look it." She blushed. He smiled.

"You know, you don't have to try so hard, I already slept with you." She said. His eyes widened at the sentence. 'Mary!' he thought, but he quickly recovered.

"Trust me, I remember." He said smirking honestly. She smiled, knowing that not many girls probably held his attention. It felt good to know that she was one of them. He glanced over to gauge her reaction, she looked...proud? This girl had definitely changed and it intrigued him.

"So where are we going?" she asked, breaking the tension that had suddenly enveloped them.

"You'll see, we are almost there." Rory looked at him annoyed.

"Lesson number one: Surprises kill me." He smirked at her.

"You'll like it. I promise." Soon the smell of food and the sound of various musical instruments could be heard. They turned the corner.

"You took me to a street fair?" Rory asked as she looked around. He nodded.

"It's more like a neighborhood block party that all of New York is invited to. I found this right after I had moved here, it's one of the coolest things to do in the city." He said as he took her hand.

"This reminds me so much of Stars Hollow. We do something like this at least once a month. Ooh! Look! They have fair food!" She said, pulling his arm towards the food booths. He laughed and followed her willingly.

OOOOO

After a perfect first date, Tristan walked Rory back to her apartment.

"Thanks for tonight, it was lovely." Rory said sincerely.

"Thank you for coming with me." He looked into her eyes and saw the willing invitation for more. He leaned in and kissed her, chastely and slowly. When he pulled away, Rory smiled and pulled him in for another kiss, this time deeper and far less pure.

"Do you want to come in for some coffee?" She asked in between kissing him. "Or some dessert?" _Or some sex._ She thought. He grinned against her lips.

"Is that code for what I think it is?" She nodded slowly, pulling him in for yet another kiss. _You can call it whatever you'd like, as long as you come in._ He groaned as he pulled himself away from her. "I can't. I have an early client tomorrow."

"How early?" She asked.

"Six AM early."

"That's in six hours, you might as well stay up at this point. By the time you go home, shower, hop into bed, we could've gone upstairs, showered, and hopped into my bed." He laughed at her.

"What are you doing tomorrow night?"

"I'm going back to Hartford for my Grandparents' dinner party."

"What time do you get back?"

"I could call you when I leave Hartford." He nodded.

"Pack a bag." He said with a grin as he kissed her again. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." She smiled. He watched her walk into her apartment before turning and pumping his fist.

OOOOO

"So, tell me all about him!" Lorelei asked, wanting the gossip. They were sitting in the jeep in the driveway of the Gilmore house after dinner.

"He's smart, funny, and incredibly hot. Confident, but not pretentious." It was something that Rory had never imagined he would be. Of course, she wasn't the same person she had been when she was seventeen either.

"And…" she wanted more than just personality characteristics.

"Let's just say I found out why he's a personal trainer."

"There it is!" She giggled happily. "That good huh?"

"Yeah." She blushed. "Although, that's kind of what worries me."

"How can that _possibly_ be a bad thing?"

"Every time we get around each other it's like we are in one of those Axe Body spray commercials." She paused. "God this is so awkward. I'm just worried that that is all we have, you know?"

"You've obviously talked to him, you went on a date, is there intellectual stimulation going on as well?"

"Yeah, we talked about a lot of really interesting things."

"Well, then I think you've got a keeper hon." Lorelei said. "It's not a bad thing to be physically attracted to a man who is also intelligent, it just happens so rarely that most women don't know how to respond." Rory nodded as she glanced at the clock on the dashboard.

"Ok, I've got to go now, I told him I would be there after dinner and dinner ended like twenty minutes ago." Rory said as she jumped out of her mother's jeep and into her own car.

"Be safe!" Lorelei cried.

OOOOO

Tristan buzzed Rory in and quickly checked his reflection in the mirror. He was nervous. They hadn't actually slept together without the glorious grace of alcohol in their systems to make everything seem so much easier. She knocked on the door and he went to answer it.

"Hey." He said with a smile as she walked in.

"Hi."

"Let me." He said, as she began to take off her coat. "How was your dinner?"

"Oh, pretty much the usual. Drinks discussing Hartford gossip, cordial dinner where we are all on our best behavior." He laughed.

"Ah yes, I remember it well. The parts I haven't repressed anyway." She laughed and followed him into the kitchen. "Do you want something to drink?" He asked.

"Glass of wine?" she asked. He nodded.

"White or Red?"

"Red, if you have it." He poured her a glass and handed it to her. "Thank you. How was your early client?" She asked, remembering the night before.

"Awful actually." He said with a grimace. "One of the perks of having a business in Manhattan is dealing with the trophy wives who have nothing better to do than work out for their husbands who don't notice them." She nodded.

"You must come highly recommended if you get to deal with the elite." She said with a grin on her face.

"The best on the island, or so I'm told." She laughed as he polished his fingernails on his shirt. _You have no idea_, she thought as her eyes stayed on his chest, even though his hand was long gone. She set her glass of wine down and walked over to him.

"And how much do you charge to make people sweat?" She asked, wrapping her arms around him.

"Why, are you interested?" He asked, pretending like she wasn't driving him crazy at the moment. She looked up at him with those big blue eyes and nodded slowly as she kissed him. Instantly, her mind turned to mush and her body took control. He pulled away.

"I think we could work something out." He replied with a gulp. He pushed her dress up revealing her thigh. He ran his hand along the outside of her leg and pulled her tighter against him, holding her behind her knee. She wanted him to take her right there on the kitchen floor and fuck her senseless.

"Hey, are you ok?" He asked. She was staring into space. And by space, he meant his chest. He smirked proudly.

"Hmm?" She was shaken from her daydream. "Oh yeah, I'm just a little tired." She said.

"Mary, would you like to share with the rest of the class what you were just thinking about?" She blushed and shook her head. "That's what I thought." He grinned. He set down his glass and took hers away. "I think the less alcohol in our systems the better." She nodded uncomfortably as she realized how close he was to her. He caught her gaze and she watched as his eyes moved towards her lips and back up to meet her again. She licked her lips as electricity crackled through the air between them. He kissed her softly, almost hesitantly, as if she would pull away. She drew him in, her arms wrapping around his back and hands resting on his shoulder blades. He broke the kiss and surprised her by taking her hand and interlocking their fingers together. He nodded towards the bedroom and she followed behind him, never releasing his hand.

OOOOO

If their first night together had been hot and fast, this was intimate and slow. They took their time, knowing they had all night to memorize each other's bodies. Tristan had shown her a side of him she hadn't seen since the piano bench all those years ago. He was gentle and truly acted as if they had an eternity to spend together. When Rory woke up the next morning, she had no desire to run away. Tristan's arms were wrapped tightly around her, even as he slept. She could feel his heart beating through his chest as she pushed her cheek tighter against him. With a kiss to his neck, she began the process of waking him up. Slowly traveling up his neck to his ear she whispered her good morning. He stirred gently and opened his eyes.

"Good morning." She said a little louder this time. He groaned as he pulled her close and pretended to go back to sleep. Now almost fully on top of him, she kissed the front of his shoulder and followed his collarbone back to his neck.

"Do you make alarm clocks, because I would love to wake up to that every morning." He asked, finally opening his tired eyes.

"I'm just getting started." She said with a grin as she began trailing kisses down his chest. She disappeared beneath the sheets but Tristan knew exactly where she was headed. He could definitely get used to this.


	3. You're Beautiful

Disclaimer: I own this laptop and a pile of college loans.

His heart started racing as he realized what he had just thought. This was supposed to get her out of his system, not make him settle down. He groaned as Rory's lips took him in, his worries subsiding for now.

OOOOO

"He kissed me goodbye, but it wasn't a great kiss. It was a light, see you around kiss." Rory was on the phone with her mother. "It freaked me out a little. I mean, I thought we were more than that but apparently he just wanted the sex."

"Oh kid." Lorelei said, concerned for her daughter.

"And it's not like that's a problem, because if that's all it was, then that's all it was and we'll just move on." She sighed. "But it didn't feel like that's all it was, you know? It felt like…" Rory stopped.

"It felt like what?"

"Like...more." She realized it herself. "And I know that sounds crazy, but it was slow and passionate, like we had all the time in the world. I don't know, maybe he's just that good. He is Tristan DuGray after all."

"Named Spawn of Satan for a reason." Lorelei chimed in. Rory laughed.

"Ok, I'm done overanalyzing and freaking out about it. I'm just going to go home and relax." Lorelei laughed.

"Since when?" Rory rolled her eyes.

"I'm hanging up now." She said as she closed her phone.

OOOOO

Tristan was completely freaked out by what had transpired the night before. He had never felt a connection like that with anyone. And yes, the sex was great but it was more than that. He felt like he had known her his entire life, like sleeping with her was something they had done a million times before. And waking up with her on his chest, he sighed, it was one of the nicest feelings he had ever had.

"AH!" He yelled to no one, the frustrated noise echoing off his apartment walls. What the hell was happening to him?! When Rory had said she was leaving, he had given her a light kiss, a safe kiss. She was obviously confused by the gesture, but Tristan didn't want to go any further until he figured what he wanted. Well that's blatantly obvious, he thought. You want Rory Gilmore. He fell onto the couch, tired of pacing back and forth. There was one thing he knew for sure, the whole closure idea had just flown out the window.

OOOOO

"Jess?" Rory yelled as she walked into their apartment. No one answered. She took off her coat and kicked off her shoes. Why do I do this to myself? She wondered as she walked down the hall to her bedroom. She knew better than to get involved with Tristan DuGray. She knew better, both because of her experiences with him at Chilton, and Logan at Yale. She was supposed to learn her lesson and move on from people like him. Rich, blonde, playboys who love her because she's different but then can't handle something new after all, so they go back to their previous ways like nothing ever happened. She needed to talk to Jess, where the hell was he any way? She walked into his bedroom and looked around. He wasn't in there, or the office they shared. She whipped out her cell phone and began texting him when she heard the door open.

"Hey, I was just…" She stopped mid-sentence. "What happened?"

"I got into a fight with Dean." He said, sarcastically. When he wasn't in the mood to talk, he wouldn't cooperate, no matter how hard Rory tried.

"You have a black eye!"

"I don't want to talk about it Ror." He said, angrily throwing his jacket down on the couch.

"It wasn't the swan again was it?" She giggled.

"No…Wait, how did you even find out about that?"

"Luke told me." She said as she put a bag of ice together. He sat down at the kitchen table.

"I can do it." He said as he snatched the bag from her.

"I know you can." She paused. "So you really aren't going to tell me what happened?"

"Not right now anyway."

"Fine, then I have a different question for you regarding your species." Jess looked at her, trying to remember the fact that he was angry right now and not interested in her problems, but he couldn't help it, he wanted to know what she was talking about.

"Fine." He answered right back.

"So I went over to Tristan's last night."

"God, Ror, I don't need to hear this."

"No, it's nothing like that. It was fantastic. But this morning, he gave me like a peck on the lips and sent me on my way. Now, what could possibly make him do a complete one eighty spin on me in less than a few hours?" He thought about it.

"Did you mention something about commitment?" Rory looked at him like he was crazy. "Right, commitment-phobe." He remembered. "So you weren't coming on too strong? There wasn't anything you said?" She shook her head and sighed.

"And without going into details…the first night was, you know, hot one night stand sex, which is fine, we all know that we were there for the sex. But last night was completely different. It was…"

"Not one night stand sex." Jess helped.

"Right! So why the one night stand morning?"

"Maybe he thought that you were coming for one night stand sex but then got freaked out when it became something more than that?" Her cell rang and she looked down.

"Tristan." She showed Jess her phone. "Hello?"

"Hi."

"How are you?" She asked, making small talk until she figured out the reason for the call.

"Can you meet me for lunch?" He said, completely out of the blue.

"Okay." Rory said, not knowing where to go from there.

"Where would you like to go?" He asked. "Anywhere, my treat."

"Um, I really don't care. I'll go anywhere. You pick." She gave Jess the 'What the Hell is up with this guy' face.

"How about I pick you up in an hour and we go from there?"

"Sure. See you in an hour." She said, hanging up. "What could he possibly have to say that he couldn't say this morning?"

"Either you two are going to stop having sex or he is gonna be your new boyfriend." Rory nodded. "What do you want?"

"At this point, I honestly don't know."

OOOOO

"I was surprised you called me." She said, sitting down to lunch later that afternoon.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I figured that you probably wouldn't be calling anymore after I left this morning." He looked at her.

"Why would you think that?"

"Because, I got a vibe this morning."

"A vibe?" He chuckled at her.

"Yeah, a vibe." She smiled, mostly out of nerves. There was a long pause. "So why did you call me?" She asked.

"Because apparently I was giving out a vibe this morning." She rolled her eyes. "No, I know that things ended…weird and I wanted to just make things right."

"So this isn't a 'I never want to see you again' conversation." He shook his head.

"Of course not, I would be crazy to say that to you." She glanced at him. "I'm serious. You're smart, funny, stunningly beautiful every time I see you." He paused, realizing that he was rambling like an idiot. "You're going to make me keep talking aren't you?" She smiled.

"Why interrupt that lovely stream of compliments?"

"My point, and I promise you that I have one, is that I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong impression this morning. I would like to keep seeing you, that is, if you are interested."

"Yeah." She said. "I would like that a lot."

"Really?" She laughed and nodded. "Good."

"So what happened this morning? If you don't mind me asking." Tristan paused as their food came.

"Thank you." He told the waitress. She smiled and blushed and Rory had to refrain from rolling her eyes. Once they were alone again, Tristan collected his thoughts. "I guess last night just… surprised me. I've never connected with someone like that ever, let alone without actually getting to know her first. That first night, I thought that maybe you and I were just…getting closure?" He hunted for the right words. She nodded in agreement. "But since the moment I met you, you've always thrown me for a loop. I never know what you are going to do or say and I certainly don't know how to react in return." Rory remembered their first kiss.

"You called me odd." She smiled.

"What?"

"The first time you kissed me, you called me odd."

"I also just called you beautiful, so that should make up for it." He smiled, clearly embarrassed by his youth.

"I liked it. Coming from you it was a compliment. It meant that I didn't fit in at Chilton, and that's certainly something that I wanted."

"You learned how to fit in though, didn't you." He smiled at her confused face. "Yale, Huntzberger. I've been doing some research on you and I was quite surprised, yet again, by what I found."

"You've been researching me? What did you Google Rory Gilmore and see what came up?" She smiled at his effort to get to know her better.

"I've got better sources than Google."

"Sources that shall remain nameless I suppose." He laughed and nodded. "So how much do you know about me, you're starting to freak me out."

"Pretty much the basics of your college years. I expected to see editor of the Daily news but I wasn't expecting to see the LDB on your resume."

"That would be how I met Logan. I was doing a story on it and he got me inside, but of course, once on the inside, I was required to stay inside."

"You know, everyone thought Logan and I were twins back in high school."

"I could see the resemblance."

"So what happened?"

"It was pretty much a downward spiral into society that my poor mother had been trying to avoid my entire life. We got into a huge fight because Mitchum told me I didn't have what it takes to be a reporter so I dropped out of Yale. I also stole a yacht."

"I read that." He interrupted, his mouth full of bread.

"And then I went to live with my grandparents. I joined the DAR, I lived out of their guesthouse and I pretty much was going insane. Logan was out of town one weekend and Jess stopped by. I hadn't seen him in about two years and the last time I saw him he was still in love with me so I was surprised to see him. But he showed me his book that he wrote. I was so proud of him I almost cried. Here he was, this kid who failed out of high school because he didn't bother attending, writing and publishing a book. And me, with the Ivy League school and all the options in the world, was simply sitting around doing nothing. I wasn't even going to school!"

"Wake-up call?" Tristan asked, completely enthralled in the story.

"Yeah. Well, it's coming. Jess credited me with getting his life together but I honestly think he just needed to grow up. We were just about to go out to dinner and Logan came home early."

"Uh-oh"

"We all went out to eat but Logan was clearly pissed off and took it out on Jess. He was completely rude, and Jess got up and left. I followed him out and he let me have it. He just screamed at me, on the terrace of a public restaurant. What the hell was I doing with my life, stuff like that." Tristan nodded. "I realized that he was completely right. I broke down into tears and left with him. Logan later apologized but I knew that he was trouble. I moved back in with Paris and I went back to school and I graduated on time."

"Which is why you are amazing. It took me seventeen years to escape, you did it in a few months."

"Yeah, but I wasn't born into it. I knew it was wrong the entire time, but I was just too scared to do anything about it."

"I still cannot believe you stole a yacht."

"I borrowed the yacht without asking. We were going to return it! You broke into a safe!" He started laughing.

"Touché. I guess we are more alike than I originally thought Mary."

"All that and you still call me Mary."

"Old habits die hard, plus, you will always be Mary to me." She smiled.

"I think there's something strangely comforting in that."

"Ah-ha! Eight years later and she finally admits it!" An uncontainable grin was spreading across his face as he looked to the other tables around them. Rory didn't respond; she just threw her napkin at him and kept eating.


	4. You're the one that I want

Disclaimer: I own nothing

Disclaimer: I own nothing

A/N: I know this was a long time coming…in fact, you might want to go back and reread the last couple of chapters. I'm still not quite happy with it, but it's something, which is a lot more than the nothing I had for a long time. I also made it extra long to make up for the lapse. Let me know if you have something you want to see in the story, I'll try and make it happen if I like the idea.

Jess stared at his eye in the mirror, wondering how he was going to possibly explain this to Rory. He knew that she would be upset with him. She had repeatedly warned him that it would get him in trouble, but did he listen? Of course not. In fact, he had done the opposite, he had straight out lied to her, something they never did, at least not anymore. There was a knock on the door and Jess went to go answer it. Glancing through the peephole, Jess sighed. The shit was about to hit the fan. He opened the door.

"Oh my God." The pale, petite hand that Jess both loved and hated flew over her open mouth. "What did he do to you? Oh, this is all my fault."

"Come inside Kate, you're gonna scare the neighbors."

"I'm so sorry, I should have never let this go on as long as it did. I was just so scared to break up with him, I…" He cut her off.

"This is not your fault." He said as he ran a finger over her chin. "This is his fault. You're staying here tonight. I want you to promise you won't go back there without me, okay?" She nodded.

"What happened?" She asked, her voice wavering.

"He's not going to bother you anymore I promise."

"Jess, I…" She didn't know what to say.

"Don't worry about it."

OOOOO

Rory walked in to see Jess and Kate sitting in the living room. Her mouth dropped open at the sight of them together. She set down her purse but before she could speak Jess got up to pull her into his bedroom. Without a word, he shut the door leaving Kate to sit alone.

"Before you start," Jess said. "He tried to hit her."

"What?"

"She called me last night while you were out and he threatened to hurt her."

"The eye is from him, isn't it?" Jess nodded. She sighed. "Is she okay?"

"Yeah, I got her to a friend's house and then went back to get some of her stuff."

"And he was waiting." She said, knowing exactly what happened before he could tell her.

"Pretty much."

"Are you guys getting back together?" Jess paused as he looked to the door, half-expecting Kate to be standing there.

"I never stopped seeing her Ror." He said, refusing to lie to her again.

"Oh Jess." Her eyes closed as she put her hand over her forehead.

"I know. I know. I lied to you and I'm sorry, but I couldn't leave! I love her. Last night…she was telling him about me, she was going to break up with him and he went nuts."

"No wonder he gave you a black eye. You're the other man." She snipped.

"Don't you think I know that?" He snapped. "And who are you to judge? You're not exactly someone who can talk, Ror. At least she's not married." Her eyes hit the ground as she crossed her arms. He closed his eyes and sighed, attempting to get his temper back under control. "I'm sorry, that wasn't fair."

"No, it wasn't." She said, obviously hurt by his statement.

"I tried leaving, I really did, but I just…I can't control myself whenever she comes around. I lose my determination."

"I'm sorry." She took a deep breath. "I don't want to fight with you about this. I just don't want to see you get hurt."

"I know you don't."

"Truce?" She walked over to him. He shook her hand. "Okay then. I'll assume that she's staying here for awhile?"

"Yeah, at least until we figure out what to do next." Rory nodded.

"Okay, I'm going to go try and get some work done. And be careful this time around."

"Hey Ror…" She turned around. "Thanks." She nodded as she left the room. He was never going to learn.

OOOOO

"Was she mad? She deserves to be mad I think." Kate said as Jess emerged from the bedroom again.

"She wasn't mad. She was just… surprised." He said with a smile.

"Well, that's good I guess."

"She said you could bunk here until we figure things out." Kate nodded slowly.

"Well, are you busy today?" She asked.

"No, why?"

"Wanna go look at cheap probably rundown apartments?" Somehow, she made the offer sound wonderful. Jess smiled.

"I'd love to."

OOOOO

"Rory, can I talk to you?" Kate asked one morning as Rory was watching CNN.

"Sure." She said hesitantly as she turned off the TV. "What is it?"

"I just wanted to say thank you for being so understanding. I know that you love Jess and you want what's best for him." Rory nodded.

"I do."

"But I love him too, and I didn't want any of this for him. Still, he's the one that I want to be with." Rory sighed.

"I know you do." Kate nodded, thinking that she had spoke her piece. "He loves you too." Rory added as Kate began to walk away. Kate smiled and stopped. "You make him happy."

"I hope so." She said as she left the room.

OOOOO

Later on that week, Rory was letting all of frustration out on Tristan about Jess.

"And then, he just gives me the look, and I know he's so far in over his head, and he knows it, but he loves her, and part of me can't help but be happy for him. Anyway, now they are looking at apartments for her." Tristan smiled as she finally ran out of breath. "What?" She looked at him.

"You're cute when you ramble." She scoffed at him.

"I do not ramble." She lied. Tristan shrugged and leaned in to kiss her. Rory smiled against his lips. "Hey. I have a question." She said as he pulled away.

"Okay."

"I'm going home this weekend and I was wondering…would you like to come?" Tristan's face showed the minor freakout moment that was happening inside his head. He recovered quickly as she kept talking. "I thought that it might be fun to show you around town… and you could meet my mom." She mumbled at the end.

"Ah, and the real reason emerges." He said as he pulled her in closer. Her smile was soaked with mischief as she played with a button on his shirt.

"Well, if we're going to date you're going to have to meet her eventually."

"Yes, eventually." He said. "Not two weeks into our relationship."

"It won't be that bad… I promise you'll like her."

"I can't remember ever meeting any girl's parents and having it go well." He said.

"Well, there's a first time for everything." She said.

OOOOO

Tristan knocked on Rory's door, expecting her to answer. Instead he was greeted by Jess.

"She's still not here." He said, walking into the apartment.

"Really? I thought she said it would only be another hour?"

"Well, apparently this interview is going to last all day because she has yet to show up." Tristan whipped out his cell phone and began dialing her number.

"I'll find out where she is." He waited as he got her voicemail. "Cell's off." He told Jess. "Hey, it's me. Jess and I are wondering where you are…call me back."

"We'll give her another half an hour, then I'm leaving without her. You are more than welcome to join me. She's done this before and it usually means that she's going to be a lot longer than she lets on." Tristan laughed.

"She's definitely dedicated." Jess nodded and rolled his eyes as if he had done this a thousand times before.

OOOO

"I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry!" Rory said into the phone. "I'm running so late. I know I told you that it would only be an hour later, but now it's going to be a little more."

"It's okay. I'm riding up with Jess, it's fine."

"You're what?"

"I'm riding up with Jess. I stopped by your place and he was planning on going up anyway so he offered to give me a ride. I'll just ride home with you later. We just got in the car."

"Oh. Um, okay. I'll see you in a few hours then?"

"Yep, see you soon." He said as Jess watched him.

"She was freaking out wasn't she?" Tristan smiled and nodded. "She should be, I have all the dirt on her."

"You do realize that logic works both ways." Tristan said.

"Like she would ever let me forget?"

"I've heard quite a bit about you."

"But yet I know nothing about you." Jess said.

"Ah, here it comes." Tristan said. "I was wondering how long we could go without the talk."

"What talk?"

"The 'You break her heart, I break your face' talk." Jess rolled his eyes.

"Eighties references aside, I'm not worried about Rory." Tristan was kind of shocked at that answer.

"You're not?"

"With you? Are you kidding? After all the guys she has been with, myself included, you are the least of my worries." Tristan was confused by that statement but figured he should just let it go. "I just figured I should get to know you, it seems like she really likes you."

"Oh, well in that case." He said, a touch of sarcasm in his voice. "What do you want to know?"

"Why don't you start at the beginning?" Tristan took a deep breath and thought about what he wanted to say.

"I was born and raised in Hartford society. The first sixteen years of my life I was an arrogant prick who got everything he ever wanted in life, including women. And then, one day, I was late for class. There was a new girl in school and she was a total Mary in every sense of the word. Naïve, adorably virginal, completely ignorant of the world she had just walked into and she wanted absolutely nothing to do with me. I had never heard the word no before and I didn't like hearing it from some petite little girl who, ironically enough, turned out to be extremely stubborn and strong for such a small frame."

"Don't I know it." He said.

"She hated me for being an asshole. I hated her for making me feel insignificant and unworthy of her attention. It was a lot for a high schooler to take. I started getting into trouble because I was bored and my home life sucked. Next thing I know, my girlfriend Summer is breaking up with me at a party in front of the whole school. I go off into a corner to sulk and Rory walks in, book in her hand, wanting to make sure I'm okay."

"That sounds like Rory."

"After everything we had been through, she still tried to make me feel better, which only made me feel worse. She had broken up for the first time with her boyfriend the night before."

"Dean."

"Right, and we ended up kissing. Although, she ran off in tears because she hadn't gotten over Dean yet." Jess laughed.

"Now that definitely sounds like Rory. Don't feel bad, she's never made it through a first kiss without running away."

"Are you serious?" Tristan said, slightly grateful to know that he wasn't the only one.

"It's her trademark move. The first time she kissed Dean she actually stole Cornstarch from Doose's. The first time she kissed me, well, she was still with Dean, so she had good reason to run away." He laughed.

"She never told me any of this."

"Well, it hadn't happened yet had it?" He said. "Go on, finish your story."

"So she tells me that it didn't mean anything and she regrets that it happened etc, which only sends me further over the edge, because, of course, it was one of the best kisses I've ever had. And pretty soon, Dean shows up at Chilton and sees us together, I had stolen her books, and she tells him that she hates me and loves him and then she proceeds to get back together with Dean in front of me."

"Ouch."

"Yeah, but then, we were cast in the final act of Romeo and Juliet together for English."

"Oh my God."

"Which meant that I got to kiss her, over and over again, in front of Dean."

"Did he do that thing, where he gets really tall and then really angry and his neck starts turning purple?" Tristan laughed.

"Yes! God, I loved it. But right before our performance, I got shipped off to military school for breaking into a safe."

"Wait, what? Why?"

"Good question. I didn't need the money. It was just, something we thought would be funny at the time. So I go in, 5 minutes before we're supposed to go on and I have to tell them that I'm leaving school. Paris goes ballistic and starts putting on my costume, Rory looks, dare I say, sad that I'm leaving. And I'm just staring at her, trying to collect everything into a memory of her because I'm convinced I'm never going to see her again and I want to lean in and kiss her goodbye, but Dean is just, staring at us from 20 feet away so I turned around and walked away."

"Damn, that's intense."

"I spent my senior year at military school, went to UNC and got my degree in Business and Exercise Science and started my own gym with my trust fund."

"And how long have you been doing that?"

"Almost three years. We're just starting to grow into an actually successful business. I just hired some new trainers and a massage therapist so business is doing well."

"I must say, when you showed up that night at her party and she told me you went to high school together, I figured you were just some guy she knew, but you two really have a history don't you?" Tristan just nodded. "But that doesn't really tell me anything about you. What are you into besides exercising? I'm assuming you like sports?"

"Baseball. I'm a huge Red Sox fan."

"Really? I pegged you for a Yankee fan." He said. Tristan laughed.

"My dad was a Yankee fan, hence the Red Sox." Jess nodded.

"Rebellion, say no more. I grew up 5 minutes from Shea so I've got the hatred as well. I'm sure we'll be watching the Red Sox game later this afternoon, Luke loves 'em."

"That's good to know." Tristan said. "What else can you tell me? I know nothing about them other than what I've caught in passing through Rory." Jess thought about it a little bit.

"Lorelei wants honesty, even if she says she doesn't, look her in the eye, treat her like a friend and not like a mom. Don't ever call her ma'am but you know, respect her. It's complicated, but you'll figure it out after like two minutes with her. Somehow she makes it work. Luke will probably be protective, but if Lorelei likes you, she'll protect you from him."

"Okay."

"Don't be nervous, they really are pretty laid back. Like I said before, after everyone else they've had to deal with, they'll love you."

"So this so-called Fall festival…is it a big deal?"

"Every festival is a big deal to the Gilmores. Luke and I, on the other hand, we just tag along because we are forced to. Oh, Miss Patty, watch out for her, she will pinch your ass whenever she gets the opportunity. And Babette will corner you and drain you for details about your relationship."

"Got it."

"Dean will probably be around." Tristan perked up a little at how nonchalantly Jess threw that in there. "You know, between the two of us, he might very well have a breakdown."

"I don't want any trouble." Tristan said, knowing exactly what Jess was thinking.

"Oh, I don't either, really. But after everything he did to Rory, you can't tell me he doesn't deserve it." Tristan was quiet as he looked over at Jess. He realized that Tristan had no idea what he was talking about as he glanced in the rearview mirror. "Fuck man, forget I said anything."

"Oh no, you've got to tell me now."

"I can't, she'd kill me if I told you."

"Tell me what?!" He said finally getting frustrated. Jess sighed.

"Her freshman year Rory took a little respite from men because our relationship ended so well senior year and Dean had gotten married and she swore off men for a while. Well, she came back home for the summer and Dean decided that his marriage wasn't working out so he came back around for Rory. He told her that he and Lindsey were getting a divorce and that he was still in love with her. Of course, this was a complete lie. He wasn't getting a divorce and Lindsey had no idea about Rory."

"You mean, she fell for it?"

"She did more than fall for it, she laid down for it." Jess said as he glanced over at Tristan, hoping he got the meaning. It wasn't lost on Tristan. He hated the idea of Dean taking away his Mary. "They were together for a couple of months before Rory figured it out."

"Shit." He said, anger flowing through his veins. "How could he do that?"

"Well, of course, when Rory found out that he was just cheating on his wife, she wanted out. Dean wasn't ready to let her go, so one night they got into a fight and he grabbed her and threw her to the ground. She never pressed charges, hell, she never even told anyone except me, and this was years later of course. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who knows."

"I'm glad you told me. Now I can kill the motherfucker."

"Don't tell her that I told you. She'd never forgive me." Jess said.

"How can she stand to even see him in the same town?"

"She has this uncanny ability to deny things..." he said as he pulled into the Gilmore driveway.

"That explains the Kate thing doesn't it?" Tristan said as he realized the situation that Rory and Jess were in.

"We're here." Jess said, obviously not wanting to talk about it.

"Great." He muttered to himself. He took a deep breath and opened the car door. This was going to be an interesting trip.


	5. I want to hold your hand

When Rory walked into her living room, she was greeted by a very unfamiliar sound

When Rory walked into her living room, she was greeted by a very unfamiliar sound. In fact, it was a sound she had never heard inside her house…ever. It was the sound of rowdy men. She turned the corner from the front door and spotted the source of the commotion. Tristan, Jess, and Luke were screaming at the TV while some angry man in black was screaming at what looked to be a baseball player.

"He was totally safe!" Jess said as he pointed to the TV.

"That's a bullshit call." Luke said, his feathers obviously ruffled by the atrocity happening before him. Rory cleared her throat. Tristan looked up, knowing exactly who was standing there.

"Hey, you made it." He smiled as he set his beer down on the coffee table. "We were starting to get worried." Rory laughed.

"Yeah, I can see that." He got up to give her a kiss hello.

"Rory!?" Lorelei called from the kitchen.

"Be right back." She left the boys to their game and saw her mother sitting at the kitchen table. "Oh, I'm so glad to see you." She said as she gave her a hug. "Do you have any idea what it's like to be surrounded by men in your own home?! It was awful, they just kept speaking in this foreign language, and drinking beer, and oh, I won't tell you the worst of it. You're just a child." Rory laughed as she watched her mother throw a dramatic fit over their kitchen table.

"I'm sorry I left you alone. I didn't really think that Tristan would come up with Jess, especially without me."

"Speaking of which, he's adorable." Lorelei said, lowering her voice. "I like him." Rory smiled.

"I told him you would. He was a little nervous. He's never met anyone's parents before."

"Really?" Rory nodded. "Well, he did a very good job, especially considering you weren't here to vouch for him."

"So you've just been hiding out in here for hours?"

"Yeah. It's not as much fun as it looks, let me tell you."

"Why don't we order some food? I'm starving." Lorelei paused as if she wanted to tell Rory something. "What did you do?"

"Nothing, I just happened to mention to Sookie that you were coming back for the weekend." Rory stared at her. "And that you maybe, possibly, were bringing a boy home."

"Oh no."

"Well, I was excited and it just sort of happened. The next thing I know Sookie is planning this whole big dinner at the Inn, which is where you two are staying by the way."

"What do you mean by big?"

"Just Sookie and company, and us, obviously, and probably Michele. What is that, like ten? Gosh we are growing exponentially. Remember when it was just you, Sookie, and I? Those were good times." Rory didn't have time to answer.

"AHHHHH!" The chorus of three men shouted in unison from the living room.

"Yep, those were good times." Lorelei said again as she licked her finger and continued flipping through her magazine.

OOOOO

Tristan and Rory walked into the room that they were sharing and set their stuff down.

"This place is nice." He said, sounding halfway surprised.

"Yeah," She said. He turned around instantly to face her.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"Nothing's wrong." She said, putting on a smile. "It's just…been a long day." Tristan wrapped his arms around her and kissed her slowly, teasingly soft, and most definitely comforting.

"What's wrong?" He asked again, hoping that would do the trick.

"I forgot." She said honestly, her breathing shallow as her vision seemed to be clouding.

"Good." He said as he pushed her up against the wall.

"Tristan." She whispered harshly, biting her lip. "We can't do this now." The sight of her flushed and nervous was all that it took to get him more revved up than anything else he had ever experienced.

"Why not?" He said, rubbing his erection against her thigh.

"Because, we're supposed to be meeting for dinner."

"In half an hour." His breath was hot against her skin as she shifted under him. "If you'd look in a mirror, you would know that it won't take me that long." His teeth pulled on her earlobe as his hands ran over her hips. He was pulling her shirt out of her skirt and starting to unbutton it before she could form a sentence of protest. She let out a whimper instead. His fingers brushed across the lace of her bra, causing her nipples to harden and she sighed at the friction he was causing.

"Too many clothes." He heard her mutter as her hands ran across his lower back and tried to take off the shirt he was wearing. He silenced her with a kiss as he assisted her by undressing.

"Better?" She nodded as she stepped out of her skirt. Tristan continued his ministrations on her body as she melted back into the wall. He brushed the palm of his hand against her clit as he tested her, causing her to shiver. She didn't know when, but she had lost her underwear somewhere along the way.

"Tris." She said as she arched into him. "Please."

"You're so wet." He uttered harshly as he lifted her up and wrapped her legs around his waist. She slid onto him easily. He mumbled something resembling fuck as she clenched around him, trying to keep her balance against the wall. He waited a few seconds, enjoying her before he began to pump in and out of her.

"Oh God." She murmured as she touched her face. She moaned as Tristan worked his magic. "Oh yes." She cried, squeezing him as he left her. "Oh God." She moaned again. "Yes, yes, yes!" He quickened the pace matching her chant as she squealed out in delight one final time as she dropped off the edge of the earth. Tristan followed directly after, barely able to restrain himself long enough to get her through her orgasm. They both struggled to catch their breath as she let out a dirty giggle. He smiled as she ran her hand down her neck. Rory never felt more uninhibited or alive than after they had sex. Falling to the floor, he pulled her close to him.

"You do that so good." She said.

"You're not so bad yourself." He said.

"No I mean, you make me feel so…sexy, so wanted."

"Trust me, you're definitely wanted." He ran his hand down her arm. "Come on, we've got to shower fast if we are going to make it in time for dinner. We should probably shower together." He suggested with a mock gravitas.

"Somehow I don't believe that would help speed up the process." She said as he pulled her up off the floor.

OOOOO

"Are you having fun?" Lorelei asked as she sat down on the other side of Tristan. He smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, this has been one of the best meals I've ever had."

"One of the best? What do you mean by one of the best?" Sookie asked.

"He said the best, didn't you Tristan?" Lorelei raised her eyebrows and nodded suggestively.

"I did say the best. The best meal I've ever had Sookie, really." He said, turning on the charm that he did so well. Rory patted his knee.

"I'm glad you enjoyed it." Lorelei said. "Ooh! We should be getting to the firelight festival otherwise we are going to miss the fight over the matches."

"Why don't you just bring some matches so they can actually light the damn thing on time this year?" Luke asked.

"Because, everyone knows that the 20 minutes it takes for someone to finally give up and hand over the matches are the best moments of the festival. We get to see Taylor freak out."

"Everyone brings matches, no one hands them over." Rory whispered with a wink, explaining to Tristan as she put on her coat. "It's our way of silent rebellion."

"You kids have fun." Jess said as he pulled out his book from his back pocket and pulled the pencil out from behind his ear.

"Come on Jess, come with us." Rory said. "You know you want to see the look on Taylor's face when you suggest that you have the matches but refuse to give them to him." Tristan laughed.

"That was fun for one year."

"Please?" Rory stuck out her lip and batted her eyelashes. "For me?"

"She's not going to let it go." Tristan said. Jess rolled his eyes. "Don't leave me alone out there with her, who knows what will happen." He whispered.

"Fine, but I reserve the right to bail out early."

"YAY!" Rory said. "Come on, let's go!" She said, pulling him out the door.

OOOOO

Tristan and Jess stood on either side of Rory as the search for the matches came to an end.

"So soon?" Rory pouted.

"Taylor brought his own matches this year." Tristan said.

"He finally figured it out." Jess muttered as he looked past Rory. She was too involved in the lighting but Tristan followed his gaze to the corner, where Dean was standing. Wrapping his arm around Rory instinctively, she smiled and leaned against him.

"I'm really glad you're here." Rory said softly. "Both of my boys." She said, wrapping her arm in Jess's.

"We're glad to be here." Tristan said. Rory caught the protection in his voice for the first time and took another look at his face. When he didn't look at her, she looked at Jess, who was looking at the bonfire.

"What is going on?"

"Nothing." Jess said. Rory knew that voice, and she knew that it was not nothing.

"Here comes your mom." Tristan said as he pointed toward the couple walking towards them.

"I'm cold, we're going to head home." Lorelei whined. "It's not nearly as fun when they have matches."

"Okay, have a good night." Rory said.

"I'm gonna get out of here too." Jess said as he put out his cigarette. Rory looked at him. "I came, I saw, that was the deal." She sighed.

"Okay," she gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Go if you must."

"Later man," Tristan said as he gave him a pat on the shoulder. They watched as he walked away before her attention drifted elsewhere.

"Well that explains it," she muttered, suddenly aware that Dean had been staring at them this whole time.

"Ror, let's get out of here." He said, wanting to leave.

"You wanna know a secret?" She said, ignoring whatever Tristan had just said.

"Sure." He said.

"Tonight's a big night in my history with Dean." Tristan swallowed the acid that crept into his throat at the sentence.

"Oh yeah?" She nodded.

"It was on this very night that we broke up for the first time, on our three month anniversary. He told me he loved me and I couldn't say it back." She scoffed. "That should have been my first clue."

"You were just a kid." He said, comforting her. "You didn't know the first thing about love."

"I never told you how Dean and I ended up."

"You don't have to tell me. Really, I probably don't want to know." Tristan said, knowing already.

"I do, I have to tell you because I've been thinking about it all day and it explains why I was so hesitant to even be here in the first place." Tristan took a step back and finally listened to her. The last time they had talked she had sounded so excited, he definitely didn't get the hesitant part of her reaction.

"Dean and I were together until senior year, when Jess came. It was safe to say that we didn't end well and I always had some guilt over choosing Jess over Dean. Anyway, college rolled around and I started to get homesick for my old life, you know? Back when it was simple?" Tristan nodded, knowing that feeling all too well. "So when I came home for the summer, Dean was still in Stars Hollow, but married. Although, he told me that it was a big mistake and they were getting a divorce. He kept talking about how I had always been the one for him and how he was still in love with me and he and Lindsey were separated. I bought into it, hook, line, and sinker."

"You slept with him." He said, the phrase literally killing him to say. She nodded.

"More than once." She looked so angry at herself. "He wasn't getting a divorce." She sniffed, the cold weather finally getting to her. "When that finally sunk in, I tried to leave the relationship, but he wouldn't have any of it." Tristan clenched his jaw, knowing what was coming next. "We got into a fight and he," she was crying now, "he threw me down on the ground and he looked like he was going to…" Tristan shushed her as she cried against his shoulder.

"Why didn't you tell anyone?" He asked. "They could have helped you."

"Because, I was the other woman, not Mary, or the perfect town princess with the perfect halo. If I had told people, they would have found out. I lost my virginity to a married man who tried to rape me when I tried to leave."

"Rory," His heart was completely broken for her as he rocked her in his arms, the silence of the now empty town square comforting her. "He's never going to hurt you from now on, you know that right?" She nodded. "I'm here, Jess, Luke, Hell this entire town is willing to fight to the death for you. I'm not going to let anyone hurt you." She looked up into his eyes and saw a flicker of emotion she hadn't seen there before, a willingness to do whatever it took to keep her safe. She sighed, relieved to finally get it off her chest.

"Thank you for listening."

"Thank you for telling me. I know that it wasn't easy." He kissed her frozen nose. "Come on, let's get you inside where it's warm. I had Sookie leave some of that hot chocolate in a thermos for you." She smiled and sniffed again.

"Okay." He took her hand and walked her back to the Inn.

OOOOO

The next night, Rory was lying in bed when Tristan came in with a slice of Sookie's pumpkin pie and some whip cream. She laughed at the sight, knowing full well why he brought the entire can.

"What is that?" She said.

"A present."

"For me?" He nodded. "What's the occasion?" She asked, deciding to play along.

"Our anniversary." Rory laughed him off as she stole the pie from him. "I was thinking today about what you said last night, and if what you said was true, that would make tonight the seven year anniversary of our first kiss." Rory froze, suddenly removed the fork from her mouth and set it back down on the plate.

"Oh my God." She started chewing as she did the math in her head. With a swallow, she started again. "You're right. That was the night after I broke up with Dean. How did you remember that?" She said, completely amazed.

"When a girl you like bursts into tears right after you kiss her, you don't forget it, or the reasoning behind it." He smiled, still slightly embarrassed after all these years.

"You remembered our first kiss, and you brought me pie. It's official, you're the best boyfriend I've ever had." Tristan looked up at her and grinned. It was an image that she wanted to take with her and keep. You love him, her heart told her, it's too soon, her head replied right back. She just kept smiling at him, knowing that this was more than anything she could have ever predicted.

"I'm glad that you scarred me enough in my childhood for me to remember." He said, laughing at the sentence.

"I think I can come up with a few ways to make it up to you." She said as she held up the whip cream can.

"I don't know." He whispered. "I have a lot of issues to work on. This might take awhile." He slid her shirt up, revealing her stomach and began kissing his way to the top.

"I've got time." She sighed, running her fingers through his hair.


	6. Keep your hands to yourself

Disclaimer

Jess and Tristan were waiting outside the bookstore after giving Rory a couple hours head start before meeting up with Lorelei over at Luke's for lunch. Standing there in the cold, Tristan noticed that Dean was walking down the street towards them.

"Heads up." He said to Jess as he nodded towards Dean. Jess looked over and then looked in the bookstore, making sure Rory wasn't near a window in case this got interesting.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here? Is the local Juvi center holding a reunion in town?" Dean asked.

"Yeah, but you better hurry, don't want to be late." Jess said.

"I must say, I am surprised to see you here." Dean said, turning his attention to Tristan.

"Well, you never were very bright Bagboy. It's how Rory and I kept our relationship a secret for so long. Oh, but she never told you about that did she?" He said, feigning regret.

"Rory." Dean said as she walked out of the bookstore.

"Dean." She quickly turned to view all of the men to her left.

"I was just telling Dean here about our first kiss. You know, that night that he broke up with you because you weren't in love with him." Rory smiled and glanced at Jess, who was trying not to outright smirk. "All those late nights rehearsing Romeo and Juliet." Rory blushed and looked down.

"I remember it." She said. Tristan locked eyes with her and smiled. "And every other kiss that came after it." As Dean walked away disgusted, she winked. After a long and, Tristan willingly admitted, perfect kiss, she pulled away, but didn't remove her arms from around his waist.

"Hi." She smiled.

"Hey, how was it, did you find anything good?" He said, changing the subject.

"Fantastic." She said, holding up her bag now filled with new books. Tristan looked at the bag then looked at Jess. "What? They're cheaper here than in New York." She said, defending her purchases as they made their way towards the diner.

"That's what he said." Lorelei said as she caught up to them. She had no idea what they were talking about, but when you're given phrases like that, you just have to run with it. Rory rolled her eyes as Jess and Tristan laughed.

"Don't encourage her."

"Hey! Don't be mean to mommy." She said as she shook her finger at her daughter. "So besides adding to your massive book collection, what else are you going to do today?"

"We're going to Luke's for lunch, then it's all up in the air. Why?"

"Want to, oh, I don't know, help me at the Inn?" Lorelei said almost too quickly to notice.

"What?"

"You're smart, you could learn a language quickly right? I need someone to help me at the Inn, someone who speaks French."

"Michele speaks French."

"Michele is gone on vacation and I have a couple here from France and I can't actually communicate with them. I thought maybe I could wing it, but it's not going well."

"I speak French." Tristan offered.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah." He laughed at her face.

"How do you know French?" Rory asked, not knowing this about him.

"My name is Tristan DuGray. I'm one hundred percent French. I spent every summer of my childhood outside of Paris." He said as he counted each point on his fingers. "I know French."

"Say something!" Lorelei begged.

"No!" Jess and Rory said at the same time. Tristan looked at them, but continued.

"Bonjour, comment ça va? That's 'Hi, how are you'."

"New Toy!" Lorelei giggled. Jess and Rory linked arms and started walking faster ahead of them. Tristan smiled and shook his head. "What about 'Hand over the diamonds and no one gets hurt."

"For robbing Cartier?" He asked.

"Exactly!" She giggled with delight that he caught on so quickly.

OOOOO

"Now say, I want to buy a poodle and surf the seven seas."

"Argh." Rory moaned. "You've created a monster!"

"She was fine until she heard me speaking with that couple at the Inn."

"Okay, fine. I'll stop." She said, finally giving it a rest. "But someday, you'll thank me."

"Right. When was that last phrase going to be used?" Rory asked.

"When I am taken hostage in Paris and you need to ask a cab driver to buy a donut for my ransom."

"Even after all these years, you astound me."

"Aw, stop it, I'm blushing."

"She makes me tired." Tristan said as he leaned over to Luke.

"Ten years of being tired." Was all he said.

"Dirty!" Lorelei smiled.

"Come on," Rory said, grabbing Tristan's arm. "I'm taking him away from you for a long time." She told Lorelei as she escorted him out of the house.

OOOOO

The weekend flew by and soon Tristan was back at work. He walked back into his office after watching one of his clients finish up his workout.

"Hey," Dave, his new massage therapist, said.

"Hey, how is your day going?" He nodded.

"It just got a lot better. I was just finishing up lunch and we got a call in for an hour massage."

"Anyone I know?" He asked, as he shuffled through the fridge looking for his lunch.

"Nope, new girl." He handed Tristan the clipboard in his hand. He rarely paused to look at it, but did a double take when he read the name.

"New girl, huh?" He said with a smirk. "Dave, go ahead and take an extra long lunch break, I'll pay you. I'm going to handle this one." He looked confused.

"Why?"

"It's my girlfriend." He said as he walked down the hallway to the quiet room. He opened the door and found Rory, already undressed and lying on her stomach. He smiled. She didn't even open her eyes when she heard the door open. Tristan put some lotion on his hands and began massaging her back.

"Wow, that feels really good." He still didn't say anything as he moved his hands lower and lower to her hips. She cleared her throat, clearly uncomfortable with the situation but she didn't protest so Tristan ran his hand down her ass. "Um, excuse me." She said, her eyes opening for the first time as she turned around to face him.

"Bout time Gilmore, I was starting to think you would let a complete stranger get further than you would your boyfriend." Never losing the clutch on the towel she held above her breasts she hit him. "Ow! What the Hell!" He said giggling.

"God, you freaked me out. Where's Dave?" She asked.

"You know if you wanted a free massage, all you had to do was ask." He said.

"No thank you. I want it done by a professional."

"I am a professional." She scoffed at the idea. "Why did you come to my gym?"

"I got a recommendation from someone I work with. I didn't think I would actually run into you, don't you have a business to be running?"

"Yep, and luckily, you came in on my lunch break."

"Bring Dave back." She pouted. "He was nice."

"Right, like I'm going to pay my employees to put their hands all over my girlfriend. Lay down." He said, pushing her back down on the table.

"Does the club cost extra with that grunt or…" He laughed, knowing that he did sound a little possessive. "How did you even find out I was here?"

"I stole a glance at the client sheet. So," He said continuing the massage, "who recommended you?"

"Shhhh." She said putting her head back down. "I'm relaxing." Tristan rolled his eyes as he continued his work.

OOOOO

"Your time is just about up." He said as he ran his fingers over her forehead one more time.

"Mmm." She whined, too relaxed to actually say anything.

"But because you are a special client, I could give you a finish." He offered.

"Mmkay." She said, not even paying attention to what he was doing. He smiled, excited to see the reaction that was about to happen.

"Have you ever heard of pressure points?"

"Mmhm." She mumbled.

"Prepare yourself." He said as he left the top of her body and traveled back down to her feet. Placing two fingers on the top of her foot and his thumb below he began to rub her feet. Slowly she opened her eyes as she began to feel all the blood rushing to her core.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"Shh, I'm working." He said, copying her earlier tone.

"Tristan." He just smirked and continued, pressing harder. She was now horny as hell and naked, a combination she didn't care for considering that Tristan was at her feet. He obviously read her mind because it wasn't long before he was traveling up her leg. Rubbing her inner thigh, she sighed impatiently. He finally gave in, giving her clit the attention her feet had been receiving earlier. She moaned and he silenced her with a kiss.

"Quiet room." He reminded her as he inserted a finger into her. She bit her lip, trying to follow the rules, even in her current state. It wasn't long before she was coming around his fingers. "Good girl." He whispered as she rode out the last few waves of her orgasm. She didn't know how she was going to pick herself up off the table, let alone walk home.

"Do you do that for every girl who walks through those doors?" She asked. He chuckled and shook his head, watching her every move as he wiped the lotion off of his hands with a towel.

OOOOO

Rory was staring at the wall when she finally heard Tristan's keys in the door. She had been waiting for him to come home from work for two hours. Glancing at the clock, she noticed it was 9:30.

"Where have you been?" She asked, knowing he would be surprised to see her there.

"Hey. How did you get in?" He asked as he set down his duffel bag.

"The doorman let me in." She said. "What's your excuse?"

"I had a late appointment. I wasn't expecting you to be waiting for me."

"I wanted to pay you back for this afternoon by making you dinner." Tristan sighed as she opened the refrigerator door. He followed her gaze to the food that was now sitting cold in the fridge.

"I'm sorry. If I had known I could have…"

"It's fine. It was just supposed to be a surprise." She said, giving up. "I didn't want to tell you."

"Let's heat it up." Tristan compromised. "I haven't eaten anything all day. I worked through lunch." He said with a wink. He pulled the Rubbermaid containers out and placed them on the counter. "What do we have here?" He asked as he opened the first one. "Caesar salad. Not bad." He said as he took his fork and stabbed the food directly out of the container. She watched as he ate, smiling as he overworked just to please her. He enjoyed every bite.

"You don't have to do that." She said, rolling her eyes.

"Are you kidding? I'm starving. If you hadn't stopped by for lunch, this would have been the highlight of my day."

"Well, it's good to know that I come before food."

"Literally." Tristan said with a dirty smirk. Rory playfully slapped his knee before getting up and heating up the rest of his food. "Hey you said it." 

"How was the rest of your day?" Rory asked, quickly changing the subject.

"Long." He said. "What about yours?"

"Um, actually, that was the other reason for the dinner." Tristan stopped chewing and swallowed his food. "I got a pretty big job offer today." She said quietly as she set down the other plate in front of him.

"That's amazing, what happened?"

"One of the stories I wrote, the one on the riots that I worked so hard on? It caught the attention of the editor I wrote it for and he liked what he saw." Tristan smiled, but noticed that she was much more hesitant to be happy.

"This is a good thing, isn't it?" He asked with trepidation.

"Yeah, I mean, it's fantastic for my career, but…"

"But what?"

"They want me to be a foreign correspondent for their magazine. In London." Tristan set down his fork and stared at her. He sighed as he realized what she was saying. After remaining silent for a long time, he finally spoke.

"Isn't this what you've always wanted to do?" He asked. Rory nodded. "Well then, you should do it."

"You think?" She sounded surprised.

"Yeah, absolutely. Think about what it could do for your job, but also for your life, the experiences you would get to have. This is your shot to be Christiane Amanpour." He said with a smile that was harder to fake than he realized. Rory stared out the window overlooking the city and suddenly was reminded of their first morning in this very kitchen.

"You know, I've been wanting this my entire life. And now that it's here…I guess, I just expected it to be different." Tristan grabbed her hand, pulled her onto his lap.

"What are you thinking?" He asked.

"I'm thinking about my mom, and Luke, my grandparents, Jess, and honestly, above all of them, I'm thinking about you." Tristan sighed. "I want to have it all. I want to travel, and write about my experiences, more importantly about what I see in the world. But I don't know if I could actually do it without sharing it with everyone that's important to me."

"You could do it all." Tristan said as he rubbed her back. "If anyone could, it would most definitely be you."

"Tristan," Her eyes were pleading with him to tell her what to do. "I feel like we've got something good here." He nodded.

"I know."

"And I don't want to leave it behind." She was asking him to ask her to stay. He saw it in her eyes and his heart was screaming it with every ounce of blood that was currently pounding through his veins. Don't let her go. Don't let her go.

"You wouldn't. We could make it work." He said. It was the best he could offer her. This way, she knew that he wanted a relationship with her, but she still was free to leave him if she wanted to. The ball was in her court. Rory shook her head.

"It's too much work to do long distance."

"Then I'll wait for you. Rory," He said, his face full of seriousness. "I love you. I would make it work." She paused. It was the first time he had said those words to her. She opened her mouth to speak but he didn't let her say anything. "Listen, I've thought that you were the most beautiful girl I've ever seen since the very moment I set eyes on you. But it didn't work out then, because I had to go find myself. So, now it's your turn to go find yourself. As soon as I was ready for you, there you were again. Although, it was a little harder to tell if you were _my_ Mary since you were dancing on that bar at your birthday party." She laughed, despite the tears that were quickly forming. "If I could find you, even when I wasn't looking for you, there's no way that I'm going to let you go now that you're here. I don't think fate would allow it." She broke down now, crying freely at his words.

"I love you." She said as she wrapped her arms around him. He held her still, letting her cry. Knowing that she would be leaving tore him apart, but that wasn't something that he would ever let her see. He would put on his supportive face, stuff his hands in his pockets, and let her go.


	7. Lose yourself

Disclaimer

Disclaimer: This is sad

_Tristan watched as the love of his life disappeared through the doors of the airport. _

Sitting up, he realized that it was once again, only a dream. He had been having the same dream for weeks as Rory prepared to move to London. It didn't take a psych major to figure out why he kept dreaming. He hadn't mentioned to Rory or anyone the fact that this decision was killing him slowly. He didn't know what he was going to do once she was actually gone. In the past week, Rory had packed most of her stuff, sold her apartment and was preparing an opening statement for her magazine debut. Jess had decided to take the opportunity, what with Rory moving out and all, to move in with Kate, which was even more heartbreaking for the roommates than Rory moving across the ocean. They were finally growing up, separating and leaving the little nest that they had grown so accustomed to. Tristan, through all of this, had been incredibly supportive. Lorelei knew that it wasn't easy for him and had talked to him about it, but he knew that she was also thankful that he wasn't standing in the way of her daughter's dream. He felt like he was losing a part of himself, and there wasn't anything he could do to stop it.

OOOOO

Rory lay awake, tossing and turning, as she had every night this week. She was beyond stressed, and through it all, she had depended on Tristan to help her get through. Jess was gone, making the empty apartment seem all the more lonely and she couldn't help but wonder what her future would hold. Four AM didn't seem to hold any answers, so she rolled over and tried to sleep again. At least she would be acclimated to the time difference, she thought bitterly as she stared at the wall.

OOOOO

Jess watched as Kate slept peacefully by his side. He loved watching her sleep, her pale skin almost glowing from the moonlight in the window. He could bet anything that Rory was pacing in her room right now, making lists and trying to figure her life out. He smiled at the image in his head, but sighed when he realized that she was actually going to be leaving, coming home only for Christmases, if that. He didn't know how Tristan did it. If Kate had told him she was moving across the ocean, he would die inside. It was too bad, he had really liked Tristan and thought that he was perfect for Rory, but no relationship could make it through that much distance, even theirs.

OOOOO

Lorelei pushed Luke, waking him up. It was 4:30, he would be up in an hour anyway.

"What?" He grumbled, obviously annoyed by his wife's disturbance.

"I don't want her to go." Luke kept his eyes closed but woke up a little to calm Lorelei's nerves.

"She got through college just fine, she made it in the city when you thought that she wouldn't, and now she is going to do this. Rory succeeds at everything she does, and she's smart enough to know what she wants. If this is what she wants, then we have to be supportive." He had the speech memorized, both from repeatedly telling Lorelei, and from convincing himself. He loved that girl like she was his own and he too was worried about her being so far away on her own.

"But it's London." She said, sniffing. "It's so far away. It's not like we can drive an hour and help her out. It would take two days to get to her if something were to happen."

"Nothing is going to happen. She's a tough kid. You raised her so well." He said, kissing her briefly before Lorelei finally laid down again.

"I don't want her to miss this opportunity." Lorelei said, forcing herself to change her way of thinking about the situation.

"It's all going to work out for the best, you'll see." Luke said.

OOOOO

Twenty-four hours later, Rory was landing in Heathrow. Sighing, she picked up her luggage and hailed a cab to her new flat. It had been a good flight, a sign that things were going to be okay, at least for the rest of the day. She called her mother and Tristan from the road, telling them that she had made it safely. It was the first of many calls she would make that first week from London. Jess, Tristan, Lorelei, Richard and Emily, Lane, practically everyone wanted a call. She heard the concern in their voices as they asked about her new place and neighborhood, how her new job was treating her. Looking back, she realized that Tristan and Lorelei always asked the same questions, which made her smile. It meant that Tristan truly loved her and wanted to protect her from harm as if he were born to do it. She would always ask after the gym and how his life was going, but Tristan never wanted to talk about himself, as if talking about himself reduced the amount of time he got with her.

It went on like this for a couple months before Rory started traveling. Paris, Brussels, Athens, wherever the story took her. Once, on a special and slightly illegal break on a work trip, she took a day trip to Fez. Snapping her photo near a sign, she sent it to her grandparents, thanking them for everything that they had done for her. Lorelei said that Richard had never looked so happy in his entire life as he did when he received that photo. It now hung proudly in his office.

Things weren't always so glamorous traveling. It was during a trip to Paris that Rory and Tristan decided that they weren't going to keep trying their relationship while she was gone. Through all the tears, from both sides, they separated knowing that neither one would find anything better, but it was easier than trying to be together so far apart. They still emailed and talked occasionally, but they were both free to do what they wanted.

Now, nearly a year later, she was crossing the Atlantic for the first time since she had left. Using her two-week vacation, she had hopped a surprise flight to New York. She knew that Lorelei would kill her for seeing him first, but Rory wanted to see Tristan. Taking the elevator up to Tristan's apartment, Rory's stomach was in knots. With a deep breath, she knocked on the door. It felt like an eternity before she heard footsteps, she quickly darted out of view of the peephole so he wouldn't know it was her. As the door opened, she moved to meet him.

"Oh my God."

OOOOO

Tristan was watching football and doing sit-ups when there was a knock on the door. Not knowing who would be knocking on his door, he paused his Tivo and got up to answer it. Looking out the peephole, he didn't see anyone in the hallway. He stopped, and opened the door to see if someone had left something. Standing in front of him was a tan, beautiful brunette whom he recognized immediately, despite the more worldly clothing she now wore.

"Oh my God." He said, not quite believing she was standing in his doorway.

"Happy Thanksgiving." She smiled.

"Hi." He gave her a hug immediately, with the double purpose of pulling her into his apartment. "Look at you." He stared at her intently, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Are you surprised?" She asked.

"Very."

"Good surprise?" She questioned.

"Definitely." She grabbed his hand, wanting to just touch him. He smiled as she ran her fingertips over his skin, linking their hands. She looked up at him.

"Good."

"I missed you." He said quietly, as if he didn't realize how much until this very moment. He tilted her head up to meet his gaze and kissed her, unable to be in her presence any longer without doing so. It started out as a soft kiss, a loving welcome home kiss. Yet, as soon as his lips brushed against hers, he recalled the intensity of which he used to be so accustomed to. Instantly that old fire in his abdomen was rekindled as her tongue slipped into his mouth. It had been too long since he had felt this way. How could he have forgotten what an effect she had on him? The surging adrenaline, the excitement of every nerve flaring at her touch, she was his drug, and he had been denied for a year. Convinced that he was going to take her right here on the floor of his hallway, she pulled away momentarily gasping for breath. Rory didn't say anything, just took his hand and led him into his own bedroom.

The first round was fast, frantic and attracted the attention of the neighbors next door. Screaming, pounding, coming hard and fast. The second round was more foreplay than anything else. An hour of simply rediscovering each other, every freckle was analyzed, kissed, grazed over. They never spoke, just drank each other in. Now, watching her sleep, he couldn't help but remember that this was only a temporary vacation for her and she would be leaving just as quickly as she came. Sighing, he held her tighter to his chest. He would have to make the most of the next couple of days.

OOOOO

It was like she had found a missing piece to her soul, being in his arms again. A piece she didn't know was missing until she had found it and suddenly felt so full of life, of joy. Relishing in the sensation she stirred awake to see him. He was wide awake, only being four in the afternoon his time. She smiled, realizing it was her time too right now.

"What?" He asked, wanting to know her thoughts.

"I'm here." Was all she had to say before he joined in with a smile.

"Yes you are."

"And I'm hungry." She said, rubbing her stomach.

"Well, that we can fix." He said, sitting up. "What can I get you?"

"Food." She said simply as she stretched.

"How about take out from Lo Chang's?"

"Yes please!" She said with an excited smile. He reached over and picked up the phone. "Don't forget the Crab Rangoon and egg rolls, ooh and those noodle things that are so good. Oh and the Princess chicken." Tristan nodded as he read off the order to the restaurant.

"Yes, she's back." He laughed. "Thank you." He said as he hung up the phone.

"They knew it was me?" She looked surprised.

"Well, why else would I order so much food? It's on the way."

"God I love New York!" She said, stretching out on the bed again.

OOOOO

The snow was falling hard as Tristan and Rory made their way to Stars Hollow. She knew that the Inn was probably full and her mother was probably stressed, like she always was this time of year. Standing on the front porch, the jeep was in the driveway. Tristan knocked and Rory hid behind him.

"Tristan! What a surprise! What are you doing all the way up here?" Lorelei said.

"I brought you a Thanksgiving present." He said as he stepped aside. The screams that followed pierced Tristan's eardrums and caused Babette and Maury to come running outside in the cold. Tristan waved over the two jumping women to let them know that everything was okay.

"Oh my God, I've missed you!" Lorelei said as she held her daughter close. "Don't you ever do that again."

"I've missed you too!" Just then, the snow started to fall around the front porch.

"Snow!" They said in unison. Running out into the yard, they proceeded to play. As Tristan watched the scene unfold, he started to truly understand what Rory had given up by moving. It wasn't just their relationship, it was her entire world. It broke his heart to know that she was all the way across the ocean without the people who loved her.

OOOOO

Rory's phone was ringing as they sat around the dinner table.

"Who could that be?" She asked as she pulled it out and looked at the number. A telling look crossed her face as she turned the phone off and stuffed it back in her pockets.

"What?" Lorelei asked.

"Nothing, I didn't recognize the number. If it's important they'll leave a message. I don't want to be rude." Rory kept eating. Tristan and Lorelei both looked at each other suspiciously, taking both comfort and fear in the fact that neither one knew what was going on.

OOOOO

"How do you do it?" He asked her later that night as they lay in front of the fireplace.

"Do what?" She absentmindedly asked him back.

"Be happy in London." He knew that it might sound selfish, but he really was curious.

"What do you mean?" She asked, sitting up and sounding slightly offended.

"I mean, when you're here, in Stars Hollow, you're so happy. I love that part of you, the little kid who rejoices at town bonfires." She smiled despite herself. "But I was just wondering what you did in London without everyone here. I mean, do you have friends that you hang out with, a boyfriend? What makes you happy there?" She stared at him, unable to move.

"I have my work, which makes me happy. Traveling, seeing new things, that makes me happy. Meeting new people everyday and giving a voice to those who don't have one makes me happy. That's all I really need."

"That seems unlikely. You don't have any friends, not even coworkers, that you do stuff with?"

"Why are you so curious?" She was starting to sound defensive.

"Because frankly, I don't believe that you could live in a country for a year and not have any friends." Tristan said. "That's kind of unhealthy. Plus, what was with that phone call at dinner?"

"I work all the time. I travel. I'm not in London very much." She said, never answering his question.

"But can you really tell me that you don't get lonely, or, or, homesick?" He asked her.

"Of course I do. I'm thousands of miles from my first home, but that doesn't mean that I'm any less happy in London. If you knew me at all, you would understand that!" She said as she stood up and stared at him. Now she was being defensive and self-righteous. He sighed as he thought about what was happening here.

"Rory." He said quietly.

"What?" She said a little louder than she planned on sounding.

"There's someone else, isn't there?" She looked at him like he was crazy. "It's okay, you can tell me. I never expected you to stay single for me while you were gone." She didn't say anything, just picked up her jacket on her way out the door. The silence spoke volumes. "Rory, don't..." He said as the door slammed behind her.


	8. Nothing to Lose

Disclaimer

Disclaimer: All of my information came from Wikipedia, so don't sue me. Please.

Rory stormed out into the cold, completely unsure of what she was doing or where she was going. Her heart was racing as she stood for a second before she heard the door behind her opening.

"Ror, come back inside please." He asked. "You're gonna freeze out here."

"Was there anyone else?" She turned around to face him.

"Never." He shook his head. "But that doesn't mean you couldn't or shouldn't have been…"

"There wasn't anyone else." She said bluntly, cutting him off. Tristan took a second to process.

"Then what was the deal at dinner?" He asked.

"I can't tell you." She said. "I will, someday, but for right now, I can't. You just have to trust me."

"Of course I trust you. Now will you please come inside before my toes fall off?" He asked as she conceded and headed for the open door. They walked upstairs silently and Tristan slipped into bed.

"I'm sorry." He said quietly. "It just seemed like…" Rory cut him off with a finger to his lips.

"I know. It's okay." He took a deep breath. "If I had said yes, what would you have done?" He turned to face her.

"We're on a break Ror. You have free reign to do whatever you want, and if that means being with someone else, then…" he shrugged. "I would be powerless to stop you."

"I don't know how I feel about that. You giving me up so easily." She half-joked.

"I could never give you up. I love you and I just want you to be happy." Rory's raised eyebrow told him that she was reading him like an open book. "It probably would have killed me inside." He confessed.

"What if I never came back?"

"That wasn't even an option to me."

"What if I started dating Prince William and became the Queen."

"Then I would wait for the messy divorce." He grumbled, clearly tired of this discussion.

"What if I married Becks?"

"Victoria would need consoling." With a playful slap, he finally smiled. "You know that I'm crazy about you right?" She nodded.

"I know."

"You're it for me." Rory sighed, not sure that she liked the sound of that. "And when you're ready to settle down, I'll be here."

"How do you know?"

"Excuse me?"

"How do you know that I'm the one." Tristan smiled.

"I can't imagine ever being without you. I think about you more than I think about myself. I would undergo anything if it meant that you would smile for even just a minute. And I'm very determined…" He ran his hand up her thigh. "So when I know what I want…well, there really is no stopping me." He said with a grin as he kissed her.

"You're really sure about this, aren't you?" She said, surprised at his level of commitment to her.

"More than anything. Does that surprise you?"

"Yeah, actually, it does." She stopped to read his expression before continuing. "I guess, when I look at you, I still see that high school kid who just wanted to secure his place in the local round of bathroom gossip. You know, like how you still see me as sweet and innocent Mary." He chuckled and nodded. "I don't mean to, it just sort of happens."

"That's okay. I get it."

"And when I went to London, I just assumed that there would be someone else." Tristan shook his head. "But then when I got back and..." Tristan licked his lips just remembering her homecoming. "You make me feel so, at home." And there it was, the best compliment Tristan could have ever received. Home was the ultimate happiness for Rory, he knew that and the fact that she compared him with it made his entire life.

"I love you." He said, kissing her again. She inhaled slowly, taking it all in. She had nothing to lose.

"I want you to know that as soon as I can, I'll be all in." He smiled. "I just think that part of me is being super careful so if this doesn't work…"

"It will." He reassured her.

"In case it doesn't, then I'm not in a bunker somewhere bawling my eyes out."

"Okay." But Tristan knew, just from looking at her, that despite her hesitation, she was already all in. "I bet Christiane Amanpour never cried in a bunker." He added thoughtfully.

OOOOO

"Listen, I've got to go somewhere and do something today, but when I get back, I want to have dinner with you." Rory said as she put another shoe on.

"Go somewhere, do something…You're not going to break on this secret stuff are you?" Tristan said, his head still in the freezer.

"Would you rather I just left?" She asked honestly.

"You aren't doing anything illegal?" He asked, only semi-kidding. "I mean, you haven't become a secret spy for a foreign agency that is trying to take down the CIA?"

"No. But if seeing me as a secret spy makes you happy, then by all means, continue thinking it."

"This secret stuff is kind of hot. I get to imagine all the illicit things you could be doing while you're gone."

"I love you." She kissed him quickly before heading out the door. "I'll be back in a couple of hours."

"I love you too." Tristan said as she hurried out the door. He smiled, forgetting how cute she was when she was late, which was rare considering her obsessive nature with being on time. He had, on occasion, broken her of that nature by stealing her for just a few more kisses, which had inevitably led to much more. With every day she was here, he was even more certain that this is where she was supposed to be. Now it was only a matter of convincing her.

OOOOO

Rory looked around her one more time. She couldn't help being paranoid. She had never been a very good liar and she couldn't take it if someone found out what she was doing. Convincing herself that it was just her writer's imagination acting up, she walked through the spinning doors of the New York Times.

"Rory Gilmore for Susan Chira please."

"Yes, Ms. Gilmore. She's expecting you, fourteenth floor."

"Thank you." Getting in the elevator, she took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. It had been a long time since she had been on a job interview and she couldn't quite remember how she had done it all those years ago. As the door opened, she was greeted by a familiar face.

"Rory!"

"Hi John." John Burns was the chief of the London division of the Times. It was he who had recommended her to the New York foreign news editor, Susan Chira. "What are you doing here?"

"I was in town and I thought I would stop by and see everyone." Rory kept staring. "Okay, so I wanted to be here when you were hired."

"Don't say that, you'll jinx me."

"Trust me, she's going to love you." He said as he directed her towards the offices she had always wanted to be in. "I've already shown her your stuff. She's really interested." He knocked on the door. "Susan!"

"Hello, you must be Rory Gilmore." She nodded.

"It's a pleasure to meet you."

"No, the pleasure is all mine. I've been reading your articles. I must say, I'm a big fan."

"Really?" She glanced at John who was smiling.

"Yeah. The tone is very smart and witty, yet you never lose the focus of the piece. Which is very difficult to do in our line of work. I understand you were the editor of the Daily News?" She said, reading her resume.

"Yes, I was."

"Did you like it?"

"I loved it there. I was very sad to see it go."

"Well, let's get right down to it. You have a fantastic job for any young foreign correspondent, what makes you interested in the Times?" Rory smiled.

"I do love my job, being involved first hand in the news is something that I've always dreamed I would be doing. But my family is in Connecticut, my boyfriend is in the city, and I'm tired of traveling. I want to settle down, buy an apartment and actually live in it." She laughed. "It's time for me to move on. Plus, I've dreamed of writing for the Times for as long as I can remember. I actually applied for the Reston, but wasn't accepted."

"Well, we can't always be expected to get it right, can we?" John smiled.

"John's right, I think we've missed one. But, that's the great thing about life, we get second chances. What do you say, Ms. Gilmore?"

"Are you offering me a position?" Rory said, shocked.

"Yes." Susan laughed.

"Accepted." She said.

"She didn't even tell you what it was yet." John pointed out.

"Details." She waved her hand at him. "I'll take it." Rory said with a huge smile.

"Fantastic. Can you start in January?"

"Yes."

"Well, this went very well. I'm excited to be working with you. John will show you out."

"Thank you so much for the opportunity."

"Bye now."

"Bye." She turned to John. "Did that really just happen?" She asked in disbelief.

OOOOO

As soon as she got out onto the street, she called her mother.

"Hey kid! How's the city?"

"It's great. I've got huge news."

"You and Tristan are getting engaged?"

"No. Why, did he mention something to you?"

"No, it's just the first thing to expect."

"Oh, well this is bigger."

"You're not…" Lorelei couldn't finish the sentence.

"No! God no. At least, I'm pretty sure I'm not."

"Oh, well if you're pretty sure." She said sarcastically. "Well if you're not pregnant and you're not engaged, what else could it be?"

"You're the first person I'm telling and you can't tell anyone until I tell Tristan."

"Okay. You win. I'm hooked." She said, getting impatient.

"I just got a job working at the Times." Silence.

"WHAT!" Lorelei cried.

"I didn't tell anyone because I didn't want to get anyone's hopes up, but that was part of the reason I came back. They offered me a position in their foreign news section." She squealed.

"Oh my God. Oh my God!"

"I know!" Lorelei and Rory were now both officially going nuts.

"You have to tell Tristan."

"I'm going to, tonight. I told him I wanted to go out for dinner."

"He has no idea?"

"He knows that I'm doing something, but he doesn't know what. In his mind, I'm a super secret CIA agent."

"I think he'll find that more likely than you moving back. Oh my God." This time it was Lorelei's turn to squeal. "I'm so happy for you babe."

"Thanks! Me too!"

"Okay, I'm going to go scream in someone else's ear for awhile. Hey, what about Paul Anka? Can I tell him?"

"Yes. But watch him like a hawk, you never know when he's going to bark."

"Absolutely. Congratulations!"

"Bye!"

OOOOO

Tristan wasn't pacing, he was just…thinking. Okay, he was pacing. He wanted to know what the Hell was going on with his girlfriend and if that made him a bad person then so be it. He heard someone at the door so he immediately sat down.

"Hey babe." Rory said as she pounced through the door.

"Oh, hey, how was the something, somewhere, with someone?"

"I never said there was someone." She giggled as she kissed him. "But good try. Come on, I'm starving." She said pulling him up off the couch. "Where do you want to go for dinner?"

"You can't just change the subject Rory." She took a deep breath. "I want to know what's going on with you. Don't you think that I deserve to know what's happening in your life?"

"Of course you do. Remember the last time I made you dinner and you never came home and it ended with sad news?" She said.

"How could I forget?"

"Don't do that again. Let's go to dinner."

"What the Hell is going on?"

"I'll tell you at dinner."

"Why can't you tell me now?"

"Because it's huge news and it deserves to be said over dinner." She said.

"Did you kill someone?"

"Not telling!" She said as she walked into the bedroom. "I'm changing into a new dress and I'm going to look stunning and I'm going to tell you my big news. And if you love me you'll play along and at least pretend to be patient for another hour."

"If I love you? I don't think you realize how hard it is to like you right now." He sighed. "Play along…pshh." Tristan rolled his eyes and mumbled to himself.

"I heard that!" Rory sang from the bedroom.


	9. Ain't nothing about you

Disclaimer

Tristan and Rory walked into their favorite restaurant in Manhattan to celebrate…something apparently. He figured it had to be good news otherwise she wouldn't be as excited as she was. The smile couldn't be contained, no matter how hard she tried. And he knew that she was trying.

"After you," he said, pulling out her chair.

"Thank you." She said as she sat down. "We'll have a bottle of champagne." She told the waiter when he came by the table.

"So it is a celebration." She nodded hesitantly. "Oh come on, we're at dinner." He said as he motioned to the restaurant. "You can tell me."

"Let's order first." She said, teasing him.

"You're horrible." She giggled. "No, I'm serious. For someone who hates surprises you sure love to spring them on people."

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"The first time I met you there was a new girl at school, surprise! The second time around…well, definitely a surprise." He wiggled his eyebrows. "When you were leaving for London, my God, I just walk into my apartment and Bam!"

"Big surprise." She finished a little guiltily.

"Exactly. Now, you just fly across the Atlantic, show up on my door and throw whatever this is…"

"Another big surprise." He nodded as he leaned back in his chair.

"Yes, you throw another big surprise at me. One of these days you're going to give me a heart attack."

"No!" She looked sad that he would even suggest it.

"No?" He raised his eyebrow at her.

"Well, I mean, you're right…but at least I keep you on your toes." The waiter came and poured their drinks.

"It's never boring." He agreed.

"Thank you." They both nodded to the waiter.

"To never being boring." Rory said as she raised her glass. Tristan clinked glasses with her as he repeated the phrase. They both finished their glasses to ease their nerves. "Okay, I've terrorized you long enough."

"Finally." He was actually nervous to hear what she was about to tell him. Not every surprise in their relationship had been a good one.

"As much as I missed everyone, there was another reason why I came back to the States." She said. "I met someone in London…"

"I thought you told me there wasn't anyone else?" He interrupted her.

"There isn't." She smiled at his panicked reaction and grabbed his hand across the table. "I met someone in London who wanted to read my portfolio. The office sent a copy over to him and by the time I figured all of this out, he was offering to set me up with a new position."

"A new position?"

"For the Times."

"The London Times?" He asked, impressed. She shook her head.

"The New York Times division in London." He didn't say anything so she continued. "So I said that I was flattered, but I really liked my job. Then he kept insisting that I meet with the foreign news editor in New York, airfare courtesy of the paper. Well, I had two weeks of vacation saved up so I figured a free trip home would be nice." He nodded. "John was the person who called me at dinner to let me know that he had a meeting secured for me..."

"This afternoon." Tristan said, catching up quickly.

"I sat down and three minutes later they offered me the position again, this time in the New York office." She said.

"Are you serious?" He said. She nodded happily. "Tell me you took it."

"I did."

"So you're staying here?"

"If you'll have me." She laughed as he took a deep breath, not wanting to cause a scene in a public restaurant.

"I love you." He said matter of factly. "I really really love you right now." He got up and kissed her.

"I love you too." She smiled as she touched his cheek.

"God, I can't believe this." He sighed. As he sat back down, she poured herself some more champagne. "I mean, when you came home and you were so excited I thought that you might be staying, but then I didn't want to get my hopes up so I just kept saying that it was impossible, but now…" He stopped because Rory grabbed his hand.

"Tristan." She laughed at his ramblings.

"What?"

"Will you marry me?" He couldn't move, but his eyes were racing back and forth trying to find out if she was kidding. It was like she just asked him to pick up a jug of milk on the way home from work.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"You heard me." She smirked.

"Humor me." He said, still not believing what he heard.

"Marry me." She smiled. "Please?" He stopped thinking all of the things he was thinking for about three seconds, long enough to answer her question.

"Yes." He said, completely off-guard.

"Really?" She grinned. He nodded and kissed her again.

"Let's get out of here." He said, tossing some money on the table and standing up.

"But…dinner!" She said, knowing she could care less about dinner right now as he whisked her back to the apartment.

OOOOO

As soon as they walked through the door, Tristan took off like a shot to his bedroom. Rory smiled as she followed him slowly down the hall. They were really going to do this, be in the same city, get married. It was everything she ever wanted and she was finally allowed to have it all.

"Where are you?" She asked as she rounded the corner into his room. He was shuffling through a box that was under his bed. He pulled out a small blue box. Rory stopped breathing for a second as she recognized it…Tiffany's.

"For you." He said, handing her the box. It was her turn to be surprised. She removed the lid and pulled out the velvet box that was inside. Unconsciously holding her breath, she opened it. She sighed, inside was the most beautiful ring she had ever seen. The classic Tiffany setting, beautiful diamond, platinum round base. It was the perfect engagement ring. He took it out and placed it between his fingers. "Don't cry." He said, reaching for her hand.

"You just handed me the most beautiful ring I could ever have imagined. I am allowed to cry." She said, sniffling. He smiled at her hand as she glanced at it and suddenly felt himself choking up. He swallowed the lump in his throat and immediately stopped the tears from filling his eyes. He wouldn't cry; it was a guy thing.

"Are you happy?" He asked, knowing the answer.

"So happy." She said, holding him tighter. "I can't believe you had a ring."

"I can't believe you stole my thunder."

"Trust me, no thunder was stolen. This was the best engagement ever."

"Mm, okay." He teased. He was keeping his mouth shut, though he clearly disagreed with her.

"I wasn't planning on asking you." She said. "It kind of just… happened."

"How does something like that just happen?" His eyes were sparkling and he was genuinely curious so she caved.

"You were babbling." She said, now suddenly self-conscious of herself. "About getting your hopes up and it just…killed me. You were so adorable. I knew that I was all in." He kissed her sweetly. "I didn't mean to steal your moment." She said softly. "But in my defense, I did warn you that I would tell you the second that I knew." She added.

"Yes…you did." He chuckled quietly as he pushed the hair behind her ear. She suddenly was finding herself closing her eyes and relaxing. The alcohol was kicking in. She probably should have eaten something. She released a deep sigh and collapsed on the bed. She giggled as she fell on to it, pulling him down with her. She ran a hand over his lower arm that was resting next to her head. Analyzing her face, he knew what was going on. "Are we feeling a little tipsy?" He asked, knowingly.

"Maybe a _little_ tipsy." She said, her fingers finding it hard to show him the sign for a little. He looked at her and smiled. He loved the fact that two glasses of champagne did it for her. "I haven't eaten all day." She said.

"You want something to eat?" He asked. "I could make you something." He offered. She smiled as she rolled him over, this time pinning him down on the bed.

"I am kind of hungry." She said, creeping her way down his stomach, unbuttoning his shirt as she went. She paused only to pull his t-shirt off as well.

"Ror," He said, shifting under her. "I'm serio…oh God." He muttered. Stroking him with her hand, she placed kisses down his abs. He had forgotten about Drunk Rory. Note to self: install a bar. She undid his belt and pulled his pants down around his ankles. Kicking them off, he watched as Rory settled against his leg. He was going to protest, but her lips found their target as she softly kissed the top of his head. He involuntarily shuddered, his hips twitching at the stimulation. Despite himself, he found the strength to pull her up towards him. "Mm-mm." He shook his head. "I want all of you." His voice was rough as he pushed her dress up around her hips. Not wanting to tear her new dress, she quickly, but carefully, removed it.

"Much better." She lowered herself onto him as commanded. As their bodies melded together, she listened to the gibberish that was falling from Tristan's lips. She loved watching someone who was so strong fall apart because of her. His hands left bruises on her hips as he held her tight. They both came screaming a few minutes later. Collapsing beside him, Rory smiled victoriously, clearly happy with herself.

"What are you thinking about?" She asked as he got a far off look on his face.

"When you knocked on my door a couple of days ago. The only thing I could think of was, 'What took you so long?'" He ran a hand over her cheek. "I didn't dare say it in case you weren't here to stay. I didn't want to make you feel bad for leaving again if that was your choice."

"The first night we met." Rory smiled. Tristan nodded as he slipped into Story time.

"It was at your birthday party. My friends and I walked into the bar and I ordered a round of drinks for everyone and as I was waiting, this girl was tossed onto the bar."

"Who was it?" She asked, wide-eyed and feigning ignorance.

"I glanced over and thought that I recognized her, but she was dancing and her hair was blocking her face."

"I wore it curly that night." She explained. He nodded.

"Well, it couldn't possibly be who I thought it was, so I shook it off. You danced your way towards my end of the bar and then I knew that it was you. No one else on the planet had those kind of legs." She blushed. "So I brought our drinks over to the table where everyone was sitting and I said "Guys, I've got some unfinished business to attend to."

"Unfinished business?" She laughed at him. He nodded.

"That's what they said. But then I walked back over to the bar…"

"And felt me up."

"Hey, my story." She rolled her eyes. "And I helped you down off the bar." He emphasized, making it sound like he didn't run his hands all over her hips and ass. "And the very first thing you said to me was…"

"What took you so long?" She nodded. "I thought you were Jess! But then you said 'Sorry Mary. I didn't realize you were waiting for me.'"

"And the look on your face when you realized who I was."

"I was drunk, I thought I might be hallucinating." Tristan laughed.

"Within minutes, you were leaning in close, and getting all touchy feely. I had forgotten what a tease you were."

"Was I coming on that strong?" She questioned his opinion.

"Strong enough that I thought I could invite you back to my place."

"Which you did."

"Best decision of my life."

"Mine too." She said with a smile.

"I think I fell in love with you the next morning. Blushing and fumbling, it was like seeing the real you, the one that I remembered from high school. Don't get me wrong, I _loved_ the night before, but my heart was gone as soon as I woke up." He admitted with a smile. Rory's face fell as she looked down at her finger.

"I'm sorry I left." Rory said bluntly. Tristan stared at her, his smile fading to confusion as he tried to comprehend the switch. "For going to London. I'm sorry."

"Why are you apologizing?"

"I know my decision took an unfair toll on you. And I know that you told me to go, but it wasn't easy on you. I know that." She hadn't felt this way since she had missed her mother's college graduation. The guilt that she had been carrying around with her finally exploded.

"It wasn't easy on you either, do you remember that conversation? I couldn't get you to stop crying."

"Yeah, but you had it so much worse. You had to live in this city, to come home every day to this apartment, to this bed. I couldn't have done it."

"Where is all of this coming from?" He asked, concerned with her sudden purging of information.

"You have been so good to me. You _are_ so good to me," she corrected herself, "every second of every day. And I can't help but feel horrible that I left you for a year. A year! I mean, my God, if I hadn't left, we would probably be married by now. It's not just that I left, I mean, I left and you didn't know whether or not I was ever coming back, but you still waited for me. I don't want you to think that that kind of devotion and love was just, discarded. I don't want you to think that I didn't love you or that I thought any less of our relationship because I didn't. It killed me." She said, crying now.

"Shhh. I know." He said, holding her close to his chest and rocking her.

"I'm sorry." It was her first breakdown since she had come back. He had been expecting one, but it still took him completely by surprise. She had been so tough and forced herself to be happy, but now, now she could tell the truth and the truth was that she hated herself for leaving him.

"It's okay," He reached over her and grabbed the box of tissues off the bedside table, never letting her go. "Here." He wiped her cheeks off. "You've been repressing that for a year?" He asked her with a sigh. She didn't answer. "Mary, you did nothing to wrong me in any way. I appreciate your apology but it's unnecessary. I don't want you to feel bad." He said, bending down to catch her eye. "Although I know why you feel the need to apologize."

"Why?"

"One: you're releasing all that tension you've been feeling for a year, two: you haven't eaten, three: you're a little drunk, and four: you just got laid." She giggled. "The filter in your brain always shuts off when that happens." She rolled her eyes and snuggled into him.

"Thank you. Despite crying, this is the happiest day of my life." She nodded.

"Good." He smiled, although his face still showed the concern he had for his girlfriend.

"And I didn't ask you because I felt guilty or because I felt that I had to make it up to you for leaving." She said, reading his thoughts. "I asked you because I love you and I've wanted this for a long time."

"Me too." He said.

"So, that's that then?" She said, resolving her emotions. He nodded.

"Come on, you seriously need someone to feed you." He said pushing her out of bed.

"Celebratory pancakes?" She asked as she stood up and put his shirt on. He glanced at her like she was insane. "Hey! Is that anyway to look at your future wife?" She wanted to know. He just put his head down and shook it as he walked out of the room. "Is that a no to the pancakes?" She said trailing him down the hall. "Because I don't mind omelets." She said with laughter in her voice.

Ta-da. That's the end. I hope you guys enjoyed it! Thanks to all the faithful reviewers, you are the reason I keep writing.


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